Alfie (left) and Axel (right) Perkins are twins but they were born five days apart. Axel was born on July 19, 2012 and Alfie followed on July 24. Axel was born when their mother was just 24 weeks pregnant

She said: ‘A doctor gave me an inspection and was amazed. Axel’s placenta and Alfie were still stuck inside.

‘I
had to wait five more days before I went into labour again. I went down
to be by Axel’s incubator while I was still pregnant with Alfie.

‘It was so strange to be there with my newborn son, while I was still pregnant.’

Axel arrived on July 19, 2012 weighing just 1lb 12oz and required emergency treatment to keep him alive. He was wrapped in plastic to keep him warm and rushed to a specialist care unit.

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The boys had almost arrived even earlier, after Miss Day’s waters broke when she was just 21 weeks pregnant.

She said: ‘I felt two huge gushes and rushed to hospital immediately. Once I was there, I was told that my waters had broken.

‘A
team of neonatal specialists attended to me and told me that if the
boys started to arrive there and then, they were almost certain not to
survive.

Axel (pictured) weighed just 1lb 12oz when he was born and required emergency treatment to keep him alive

After Axel's birth, Miss Day's cervix inexplicably closed again. As a result, Alfie (pictured) was not born immediately as expected. He was delivered after she went into labour again five days later

‘They would have tried to save them, but the chances weren’t good.

‘I prayed for them to hang on to 24 weeks, to allow them to benefit from steroids to help their lungs develop.’

Amazingly, doctors managed to prevent the birth until Axel was born at 24 weeks – the legal abortion limit.

In
the weeks following the birth Miss Day, a former nurse, and her
partner, Tom Perkins, 27, a telecoms project manager, were warned Axel
might not survive.

Miss
Day, of Barwell in Leicestershire, said: ‘When I tell people our twins
were born five days apart, they’re always amazed. It’s not something you
hear about every day.

‘It
was touch and go after they were born. They were in intensive care for
four months. Doctors warned us at one point that Axel might not survive
24 hours.

‘They came home on my 30th birthday - which was an enormous treat – and three weeks ago we were able to take Axel’s oxygen away.

Miss Day says it was a surreal experience to see Axel in an incubator while she was still pregnant

Axel and Alfie (pictured together in an incubator) have not both learned to walk and talk but their development is expected to catch up with other children. They are pictured with their parents, Emma Day and Tom Perkins